


Sollux: Get out of your hiive2tem

by nihilBliss



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bipolar Sollux Captor, Davekat (background) - Freeform, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Hiking, Hugs, Kissing, Mental Health Issues, Neck Kissing, Not Epilogue Compliant, POV Sollux Captor, POV Third Person, Rare Pairings, References to Epilogues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 21:05:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18819007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nihilBliss/pseuds/nihilBliss
Summary: Sollux Captor and Jade Harley are an unlikely pair. But sometimes, Jade needs help staying down-to-Earth. And sometimes, Sollux needs someone to help him get out of bed and do what he knows he should be doing anyway.Besides, what's a little hiking going to hurt?





	Sollux: Get out of your hiive2tem

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bakedpotatocat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bakedpotatocat/gifts).



> Part of a fic trade with Bakedpotatocat, a quality writer indeed. Check out their stellar end of the bargain, in which Dave battles his hangups about masculinity with help from Roxy: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18818839

After a week of 20 hours up, 4 hours down, Sollux Captor's body finally gave out, and he slept for a whole day. When he woke up, he found that he’d been in bed for so long, he couldn’t bear to pull himself out.

“Fuck,” he groaned. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Going on didn't serve any purpose, but that didn’t stop him. He kept muttering obscenities as he tried and failed to find the will to sit up. But inertia is a powerful master. So he rolled over, searching for his palmhusk.

“Ow! What the 2hiit?!” he cursed as his hip met something hard and metallic. He reached down and found an unopened energy drink nestled in his bedsheets. If he necked it now, he could maybe muster the will to get out of bed and feed himself, but he’d be in full asshole mode all day. He didn’t need that, and nobody else did either. Hell, he probably already owed some apologies for shooting his mouth off last week.

The thought sapped him yet further. Why did this have to happen so goddamn always? Why did he have to be like this?

“2hut up, ED,” he said, digging his nails into his hands. “You’re a huge biitch, and you are not goiing two 2uck the liife out of me twoday.”

He’d long ago attributed his negative inner monologue to a certain seadwelling bulge lesion who was no longer in the picture. It made things easier to rebuke. Much easier.

A buzzing in his pocket derailed his train of thought, solving the mystery of the missing palmhusk. He pulled it out and stared at the screen.

“Who call2?” he muttered. “What kiind of 2hiitlord doe2n’t know what textiing ii2?”

He swallowed his words the moment he saw the name on the caller ID.

“Hii Jade,” he said, answering.

“Oh there you are, Sollux!” she answered, sunny as usual. “You weren’t answering my texts, so I figured I’d check in.”

Ah yes, the texts he’d been trying to check when he woke up. The ones he’d received during his post-mania hibernation, likely great in number and rich with concern for his well-being. Those texts. Well, he was going to have to start up the contrition cluster and run the apology algorithms sooner or later.

“2orry, Ii’ve been a2leep,” he said. “Iit’2 been a long week of not doiing nearly enough of that. 2tupiid emotiional roller coaster barkbea2t 2hiit Ii do 2ometiime2 when my braiin fuck2 up. You know.”

“Oh,” Jade said, her tone dropping just a little. Sollux cursed himself. He didn’t want to make her worry. “Is everything okay? Like, are you doing okay?”

Ah, that significant “are you doing okay?” tone of the well-meaning worrier.

“Ii’m fiine now,” he said. “Ii’ll be le22 okay iif you 2tart worryiing about me the way you’re 2tartiing two. Becau2e then Ii’ll be worryiing about you. And you know thii2 ii2n’t my fiir2t tiime riidiing thii2 out.”

He heard Jade wince on the end of the phone and cursed himself again.

“Yeah, I know,” she said. “But I can’t help but feel bad that you have to deal with it.”

Sollux sighed.

“You’re fiine,” he said. “No harm done. What’2 up?”

“Oh!” she said, perking up. “I called to ask you if we were still on for our hiking date today. Are you feeling up to it?”

Well fuck all kinds of quackbeast. Every fiber in his body begged for him to cancel, or at least to ask if they could have a date where he didn’t have to leave his hivestem block. But Aradia - and, moreover, his doctor - kept telling him that exercise and fresh air would help mellow his drops.

“Iit would probably make me feel better. Let’2 do iit. What tiime are you comiing over?”

He heard a tapping on his window, and he walked over to open the curtain. And, no surprise, there she was, floating midair, phone in one hand as she waved with the other. Sunny as the day was, it had nothing on Jade Harley. He sighed and opened the window.

Jade all but tackled him into a hug, knocking him back into bed. He felt the energy drink slide out from under him and shoot into the void. Farewell, B vitamins; we barely knew ye.

“Hii Jade,” he said, deadpan, as she held him close. By some miracle, her lack of social mores outpaced his own, but being held made feeling functional easier. More immediately, it felt nice.

“Hi Sollux!” she said. She planted a light kiss on his cheek. “Sorry you’re feeling down, but I’m glad we’re still going hiking.”

“Iit’2 a liitle early,” he said, knowing that probably wasn’t true by any human standard. “Ii don’t have my 2hiit twogether yet, 2o you’re goiing two have two waiit around whiile Ii pack.”

“Well when you implied you were having one of _those_ days, I thought I’d come over to help out,” Jade said. “Better than letting you worry about me, huh?”

“Ii diidn’t mean two make you feel bad for cariing about me,” Sollux said. “2orry my me22ed up thiinkpan make2 me 2uch a douche 2ometiime2.”

Jade pouted at him.

“Solluxander Amadeus Captor, didn’t you just say you didn’t want me to worry about you?” she said. “I can’t help it if you’re going to be mean to yourself.”

Sollux sighed. She used the three-word pet name. She only used it when she was serious.

“Well talkiing about iit ii2n’t goiing to eiither of u2 any good, 2o Ii miight a2 well let you help me,” he said, wrapping an arm around her. He felt her smile as she nuzzled his chest and made those endearing little baby barkbeast sounds she did now and again. Any world that allowed someone this adorable to live and grow without losing that cuteness had something going for it.

“So!” she said, propping herself up on his chest. “I’ve already got snacks and water packed. All you really need to do is get dressed!”

Sollux scratched his head and sighed.

* * *

 

Jade’s idea of a light hike differed drastically from what Sollux pictured. They’d been walking up and down a mile of narrow trail that separated a burbling creek from a steep cliffside. Sollux had pictured flat, and this was anything but. With all the “up” that they were traversing, he would have thought they’d have crested the top of the canyon by now, but it climbed with the incline.

“So I think the right move is to do everyone a favor and just seduce the dorks for their own good,” Jade said. “They’ve been in this stupid will-they-won’t-they limbo since we got here, and I guarantee it started back on the meteor.”

“2o waiit, KK ha2n’t 2aiid 2omethiing yet?” Sollux asked between breaths. Jade governed her pace, but she was still in far better shape than Sollux had ever been. “He ha2n’t fallen face-fiir2t intwo 2ome 2upiid acciidental love confe22iion?”

“Nope!” Jade said. “Neither has Dave. But it’s so obvious they’re in love! Most of our friends think they’re dating already as it is, and they basically are, except for they’re missing out on all the best parts!”

“Iit 2ound2 liike a 2uper deliicate 2iituatiion,” said Sollux. “Or 2uper 2tupiid. Probably both, knowiing KK. Eiither way, you 2hould 2tay out of iit.”

“What?” Jade exclaimed with sugared incredulity. Breezy as she tried to say it, she started walking faster. “Come on, those two are never even gonna kiss unless someone helps them along the way!”

“They’ll kii22 when they’re ready,” said Sollux, breathing heavier as he tried to keep up. “You have a cru2h on Dave and feeliing2 for KK, and iif you try two iin2ert your2elf iintwo theiir dumba22 dance, you’re ju2t goiing two compliicate thiing2. That’2 the la2t thiing they need. KK wiill go fuckiing nuclear iif hii2 romantiic 2iituatiion get2 any more fucked up than iit ii2.”

Jade slowed down, staring into the distance.

“Dave does get flustered when he gets thrown off his rhythm,” she said. “You really think I could mess them up that bad?”

“Defiiniitely,” he said, catching up. He took big breaths between every few words. “Iif you diidn’t have feeliing2 for them, you’d have a better chance of getting them twogether, but iif you’re tryiing two iin2ert your2elf two, that’2 a guaranteed me22. A2 a rule, Ii thiink iit’2 dumb to 2tiick your bulge iin other people’2 romantiic bu2iine22 unle22 they a2k you two anyway.”

Jade stopped, hands on hips, staring at the ground. Sollux used the opportunity to catch his breath and set an arm on her shoulder; she relaxed into his hand.

“You’re probably right,” she said, sighing. “It’s just so frustrating watching them do this for all these years!”

“That doe2n’t make iit your problem two 2olve,” said Sollux, and she pulled him into a hug. He gave her an awkward kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks for talking some sense into me,” she said. “Now come on, we’re pretty close to what I wanted you to see!”

She took him by the hand and pulled him along the trail, her ship angst forgotten, or at least sidelined. Sollux did his best to keep up, swearing with every stumble He felt like some tiny troll getting dragged along by the leash of their mammoth barkbeast lusus; at least he could recognize the humor in it.

Finally, Jade slowed to a stop, and Sollux could get his bearings. They were in a clearing, and not thirty feet away, water cascaded over a cliff maybe twice Jade’s height and into a little pond, which divided into little creeks that crawled across the earth toward parts unknown.

“There it is!” Jade said. But she wasn’t pointing at the waterfall. She pointed at a single tree that stood by the edge of the pond. It was an old and gnarled oak with a mighty trunk. The top was dead and gray, but little branches extended from further down the trunk, bearing healthy green leaves.

“What’2 2o 2pecial about that?” Sollux asked

Jade shushed him, then brought him closer, slowly. carefully. Soon, Sollux saw motion around the far side of the tree, small things in the air. He could almost recognize them, too.

“Bee2?” he whispered.

Jade nodded, and he felt a smile bloom on his face. In a wide crack in the dead part of the trunk, those bees had built a massive hive. He could see part of it too, how the workers crawled across the exposed parts of the honeycomb, into and out of little crevices in the hive. They flew, and they did their little navigational dances, conveying massive quantities of data with so little effort. He took it all in, trying to process every pattern he could find.

“You like it?” Jade said into his ear.

Open-mouthed, he nodded.

“Iit’2 2o COOL!” he whispered, an open-mouthed smile writ large across his face. Jade slipped behind him and rested her chin on his shoulder.

“I’m glad,” she said, planting one kiss, then another, on the side of his neck.

“Thank you 2o much,” Sollux said, turning to face her. Her next kiss met his cheek. The one after that, his lips. Soon, they were lying on their backs, watching the bees do their dance. It was, to Sollux’s mind, perfect.


End file.
